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World Potato Congress Inc. Webinar January 14, 2021 at 09:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time – “The Impact of Climate Change on Removing Energy from a Potato Storage with an Ambient Air Ventilation System” with Todd Forbush

The World Potato Congress is very pleased to present its next webinar on January 14, 2021 with Todd Forbush, Engineer with Techmark, Inc.

Presentation Outline

Ambient air potato storage ventilation systems rely on cool outside air to remove energy from the potato storage resulting from both field heat and potato respiration. These systems do not contain mechanical refrigeration equipment, so proper ambient air quality is critical to successful energy removal from the potato storage. This presentation will begin by discussing a view of the ventilation system as an “energy conveyor” rather than a fan or fans with specific ventilation capacity. The quality of the ambient air will be discussed and the impact that air quality (temperature and moisture content) will have on the energy carrying capacity of the air system. These principles will then be applied to ambient air potato storage ventilation with input from different climate change models. The results of this evaluation will serve as a point of view that can be utilized for evaluating future needs for ambient potato storage ventilation systems as we face changing environmental conditions.

Todd Forbush received his Masters degree from Michigan State University in Agricultural Engineering in 1989. While at MSU Todd studied the effects of ventilation on the process quality of chip potatoes out of storage under the watchful eyes of the late Dr. Burt Cargill and Dr. Roger Brook. Following graduation he continued to apply this work to the commercial potato storage industry at Techmark, Inc. “The most enjoyable part of my job is working with the producers, they are the backbone of this industry and I really like solving problems with them”, says Todd.

Webinar Registration

The host for this webinar will be WPC Director, Dr. Nora Olsen (norao@uidaho.edu). To register in advance for this webinar on January 14, 2021 at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (USA and Canada) go to: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ZzR1HrxtQ8CkjhUB42fHzA

Following your registration, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

Upcoming 2021 World Potato Congress Webinars

• February 18, 2021 – Dr. Eugenia Banks, Potato Specialist, Ontario Potato Board, Canada will present – “Distinguishing Potato Diseases, Disorders/Injuries and their Lookalikes”
• March 2021 – Albert Schirring, Strategy Lead Vegetables & Potatoes, Bayer AG
• April 2021 – Dr. Paul Horne, Director/Entomologist, IPM Technologies PTY, LTD.

WPC Inc. looks forward to interacting with you during this initiative. We welcome all your feedback via email: info@potatocongress.org.